SpaceX achieved a momentous feat on Tuesday, February 6, 2018 when successfully launching the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket on a high-stakes shakedown mission – successfully boosting into orbit and later off into Deep Space a midnight-cherry Tesla Roadster as a novelty-payload chosen for this flight by SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.

The mission also carried out a science-fiction-like return of the two outer Falcon Cores in a display of sub-orbital acrobatics – firing their engines simultaneously for a rocket-powered U-turn back toward Cape Canaveral leading up to a near-simultaneous touchdown of the two boosters after an eight-minute round trip to the edge of space. This also made for some spectacular viewing for those present at Cape Canaveral – first the Earth-shaking rumble of the 27-engine Falcon Heavy followed only minutes later by the display of the twin boosters descending under engine power and sending a pair of dual sonic booms over the Cape.